As Boston Celtics president of basketball operations Danny Ainge has said several times during the past few months, injured point guard Rajon Rondo still hopes to return in time for training camp. Opening night remains the target for Rondo's first game back, or at least that's the stance Ainge has maintained publicly.

But with the Celtics in an obvious transitional year, holding Rondo out as long as he needs to get fully healthy (and maybe even much longer) could have serious value. CBSSports.com NBA writer Matt Moore recently stated his belief that Rondo should sit out the entire 2013-14 season.

The Celtics should just tell Rondo not to come back. Just let him sit out the season. There's nothing to be gained for either Rondo or the team by him coming back. No matter what they say, they're tanking.

They're building toward the future. Rondo going through the physical and emotional frustration of trying to play on a weak team with a significant injury (and the subsequent media and fan scrutiny) is only going to make things difficult for him and hurt the Celtics' chances at an elite pick.

When the basketball world first clamored for Derrick Rose to return quickly from ACL surgery last season, his brother, Reggie, opined that there wasn't a real push for him to come back. Why risk his health to return quickly, Reggie wondered, if the Chicago Bulls didn't have a realistic chance at a title anyway? He had a point then, and he had a point even after Chicago advanced to the second round of the playoffs without Rose. Miami was the clear class of the Eastern Conference last season, and the Bulls weren't ready to really push the Heat unless Rose returned 100 percent -- which he obviously wasn't confident he could do.

The Celtics are likely a long way behind where Chicago was last season, and the benefits of Rondo sitting out could be much greater. If everyone in Boston's healthy, the team could compete for the 7th or 8th playoff seed in the Eastern Conference. But with the 2014 NBA Draft shaping up to be stacked at the top, that could actually be bad. Depending on who you ask, the draft could have six or seven franchise cornerstones. I've said it before here that the Celtics should have enough assets to move up in the draft if they really want to, but having their own lottery pick certainly wouldn't hurt. Boston's players and coaches have taken the mentality that tanking isn't acceptable, but losing plenty of games next year would actually be good strategy.

So much so, ESPN's Zach Lowe wrote Tuesday, that if the Celtics start threatening to make the playoffs, Ainge could sell off some of his productive veterans.

Boston could build a top-10 defense around Rondo, Avery Bradley, the corpse of Gerald Wallace, and the combination of league-average big men on hand. That alone might be enough to drag the Green to the pathetic win total typically required to snag the East's last playoff spot.

But that is not the outcome Boston really wants, and if the Celtics find themselves on pace for it midseason, look for them to trade a productive veteran or two. This was a miserable offensive team when Rondo had Paul Pierce, Kevin Garnett, and Ray Allen around him, and it's going to be downright unwatchable on that end for large chunks of this season.

The Celtics could be okay if Rondo's healthy. But if he's out for any extended period of time, all bets are off. I don't know how much Paul Pierce knows about Rondo's comeback, but he suggested last week that the point guard might not return until December or January.

Remember how bad the Celtics were without Rondo in the playoffs? Or how brutal they looked whenever Pierce or Kevin Garnett sat during the second half of the season, once Rondo had already gone down to injury? Imagine that over a full season. I'll wait while you grab a couple Advil pills for the resulting headache, but then remember: Ainge is looking toward the future. Bottoming out in brutal fashion could actually pay huge dividends next summer (what up, Andrew Wiggins and Jabari Parker?).

And if Boston gets a lottery pick, Ainge wouldn't necessarily need to keep it. It would be an asset along with the trade exception, first-round picks and talented young players the Celtics have assembled. Ainge could select a young stud or he could flip the pick in a package for veteran talent, like he did with the No. 5 pick in the 2007 Ray Allen trade.

I doubt the Celtics could sell Rondo on sitting out a full season. He's stubborn, loves competing and certainly misses basketball. He's said to want to return quicker than Adrian Peterson did, and the Minnesota Vikings running back almost set the NFL record for rushing yards after fast-forwarding his own return from ACL surgery. Plus, it could be tough to sell the NBA that a partially torn ACL required a 15-month (-ish) absence.

But Rondo's smart and understands the Celtics aren't designed to compete for a championship next season. If he decides to sit out even a couple of months, that could cause enough damage to Boston's record. As much as I believe The Green Team could compete for a playoff spot with everyone healthy, losing Rondo for anything more than a couple weeks would prove insurmountable, even in the weak (especially at the bottom) Eastern Conference. The Celtics' only natural backup point guard, Phil Pressey, went undrafted this year.

A Rondo trade could be possible and an opening night return is said to be the target, but, assuming the point guard will agree to take his time before coming back, patience is probably the best approach for all parties. Getting Rondo fully recuperated while stacking up the ping pong balls would represent a real win-win.